Day 32: A Month in Germany

Incredible! How fast time flies! I've already been here for a month! In this month, despite the course, I haven't learned any German. My flatmates try to teach me, but I always end up speaking English with them. And the darn language seems incredibly difficult to me. German has a very strict word order in a sentence, and I'm incapable of following it.
Last week was the farewell party for the TUDIAS course. It was very entertaining, with beer and sausages everywhere.
The party began with a farewell speech from the director of the German courses, Klaus Knabe, the guy who scolded me the first day for being late while asking me if I was a Barça or Madrid fan.

The song we had to sing didn't turn out so bad. To avoid having to sing in German, I told the teacher that I played the bongos very well (a lie! I have absolutely no rhythm...), and she brought us some that a Turkish-born professor had. I don't know how I did it in the demonstration, but the story stuck, and I was put in charge of playing the bongos. I rehearsed a lot, and at the last moment, when I was finally making a noise that fit the song, the Turkish professor saw me and told me it was "jämmerlich," that is, lamentable, and he started playing himself. (What a difference: while I was playing: boom, boom, boom, bobobom, boom, boom, boom, bobobom... a lousy rhythm... the Turk seemed like Tito Puente himself: bibibobom bibibibombom bibi bum). In the end, I sang with the rest of the class hidden in the last row. It turned out quite well, and I must admit that I was wrong: we went pretty unnoticed compared to the people who did plays or contests.

This week I've also been peregrinating with José Antonio through the professors' offices to get them to admit us to their subjects. The enrollment system is very convenient for Erasmus students (I think it's the same for all students): you are considered enrolled in a subject when you show up for the exam. This system gives you the freedom to go to a class, and if you see that you don't understand the professor or that the level is too low/high, then you don't go back and that's it. For the practicals, we had to ask permission from the course coordinator to admit us, begging him to make room for us among his students, who had been signed up since before the summer. They've taken us in the advanced physical chemistry practicals. When we tried in the organic chemistry department, they told us to get lost. The coordinator of those practicals said that we didn't know enough German. We tried to explain to him that we had met the language requirements that his university asked for and that he should admit us, but the guy wouldn't budge: after giving us a resounding no, he says serenely and slowly: "You would be a problem for me... and I... don't like problems... so... I don't want to have you as students." Returning home, José Antonio, who was angrier than me, kept repeating "Man, that guy is a real dickhead." It's normal for him to be angry: he paid for the credits for organic practical subjects in Spain and he won't be able to take any subject in Germany, because the professor doesn't feel like it, so he's going to lose that money.

Anyway, from what Juan told me, it's not good to have two practicals in the same semester, because they are very hard and you wouldn't have time to do anything, so I'm quite happy that they have admitted us in at least one. The practicals start next week; I'll keep you informed.

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